Judge halves Apple damages

Apple’s thermonuclear patent troll war against Samsung has run aground spectacularly.

A federal judge slashed a $1.05 billion jury award by more than 40 percent and set a new trial to determine damages.

It is usually said that Apple won its patent claim, which effectively was over the rounded rectangle shape, every time the patent war story is mentioned.

True, the iPhone maker convinced the jury that the Korean company had infringed on its iPhone and iPad patents, but the actual value that the jury awarded was a bone of contention because it seemed to have gone through rather quickly and had not added things up properly.

Judge Lucy Koh of the US district court, Northern District of California in San Jose, decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury’s award.

She also decided that the two companies may once again square off in a California court to decide how much of the $450.5 million struck from the damages, associated with 14 Samsung products, should stand.

Koh said the jury had incorrectly calculated part of the damages and that a new trial was needed to determine the real dollar amount.

She rejected Apple’s motion for an increase in the jury’s damages award and ordered a new trial on damages for the 14 devices, which include the Galaxy SII.

Shares in Apple closed down 2.5 percent on the back of the ruling, while Reuters noted that shares in Samsung rose 1.1 percent this morning.